in conversation w Teewhy
Teewhy, known online as @whostyreke, is a wave and rap artist whose relationship with music goes well beyond performance. He writes, produces, mixes, and masters entirely on his own terms, self-taught across every discipline, driven by an obsession with the craft itself rather than what it produces.
It's that quality, the willingness to stay in the process, to learn through doing, to own every part of what you make, that draws a clear line between his world and ours. Throughout this conversation, we explore what it means to build something from nothing, and what you find out about yourself when you refuse to take shortcuts.
You write, produce, mix, and master your own music. Most people pick one. What made you decide to do all of it yourself, and what did that cost you early on?
Teewhy : I think it came from wanting to understand the whole picture. I didn’t just want to make a song and hand it off; I wanted to understand why something sounded the way it did, from the first idea to the final master. Being able to produce, mix and master my own music gives me a level of control over the final feeling that I really value.
Early on, the cost was definitely time. I spent a lot of hours learning things the hard way, and probably made songs that would have been much better if I’d known then what I know now. But those mistakes also gave me an ear for what I actually like. I had to develop my own taste instead of relying on someone else to tell me what sounded good.
Being self-taught means your mistakes are your only teacher. Can you point to a specific moment where something went wrong in the studio that fundamentally changed how you work?
Teewhy : There have been a lot of those moments. One of the biggest lessons was realising that making something louder or adding more to it doesn’t necessarily make it better. I used to keep adding layers, processing things, pushing the mix further and further because I thought I was getting closer.
Eventually I had a session where I stripped almost everything back and realised the original idea was stronger than the version I’d spent hours trying to improve. That changed how I work. Now I’m much more conscious of knowing when to stop. Sometimes the best production decision is removing something rather than adding another layer.
There's a version of making music that's about the outcome; the release, the reception, the numbers. Then there's the version that's about the obsession with getting it right. Which one drives you, and has that ever been in conflict?
Teewhy : The obsession with getting it right definitely drives me more. The outcome matters, obviously, but I think if I’m genuinely happy with the work, everything else becomes secondary.
That can conflict with releasing music because you can always find another thing to change. There’s always another mix, another vocal take, another detail you could obsess over. I’ve had to learn that there is a point where you’re no longer improving the song. You’re just avoiding letting it go. Part of taking the work seriously is knowing when it’s finished.
AYMSK operates on the idea that the evidence of process is what gives something its character, that the marks left by making something are part of what makes it worth having. When you hear that, where does it land for you as an artist?
Teewhy : It lands pretty deeply for me because I think the imperfections are often where the identity is. You can hear when something has been made by a person who has actually lived with the process rather than something that’s been polished until there’s nothing left behind.
The little decisions, the texture, the things that aren’t completely perfect. They’re evidence that someone was there making it. I don’t think everything needs to be perfectly clean for it to have value. Sometimes the mark left by the process is the most interesting part.
What does a bad session look like for you, and what do you do with it?
Teewhy : A bad session is usually when I’m forcing it. I’ll sit there trying to make something happen because I feel like I should be working, and suddenly I’m making decisions just for the sake of making decisions. I’ll change a sound ten times, move things around, delete things, bring them back, and eventually realise I’m going in circles.
I’ve learned not to panic about those sessions. Sometimes I’ll save everything, walk away and come back with fresh ears. Other times I’ll just accept that nothing good happened that day. That’s part of it too. You can’t manufacture inspiration every time you open the session.
You're building something largely on your own terms. For someone who wants to do the same; make music, take it seriously, own the whole thing, what's the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started?
Teewhy : I wish someone had told me that you don’t need to wait until you feel ready to take yourself seriously.
If you want to make music and own the whole process, start learning now. Be willing to be bad at things for a while. Don’t let not knowing how to mix, produce, release or promote something become a reason not to do it.
And probably most importantly, don’t measure your progress only by what other people can see. A lot of the important growth happens when nobody is listening. Keep making things, keep learning, and trust that the work you’re putting in will eventually show up in the music.